you O
How well dO know your
customers?
ver the past decade I haven’t met many MDs or CEOs who haven’t thought that their company was already customer-centric. I’ve been preached to time and time again about how “we know what products
and services our customers like and we even know what they want us to improve upon and which of our new products they like”. It’s at this point I usually smile and politely respond; “I rest my case. Haven’t you’ve just told me all about your ‘stuff’ and nothing about your customer?” At this point the realization that there’s a lack of something I call ‘organisational self-awareness’ usually kicks in. They realise that it’s not good enough to ask customer’s occasional questions but a necessity to engage in constant dialogue in order to have a ‘relationship’ with them.
Being truly customer-centric isn’t about showing them what you’ve got and asking them if they like it. It’s about looking at the world from their perspective and appreciating the problems and tensions they face and the things they aspire to. When you do that you start to build ‘relationship equity’ because you’ll be listening more than talking! Without the right insight it’s more likely that what you do will be more about what’s best for your organisation rather than your customer. It’s the ‘here’s what we have, how can we sell it to you’ approach instead of the ‘here’s what we know you want so please form an orderly queue’ approach.
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